Chapter Ninety-One: Midnight Horror 8

Jiang Zhao only managed to doze off for a short while when it was light, and his whole body felt weak.

When Lu Cen woke him up, he couldn't even open his eyes, barely managing to lift them a crack. Lu Cen's body swayed in his eyes.

His voice was hoarse, "What's wrong?"

Nowadays, he has an incredibly good temper. If someone had disturbed his sleep like that in the past, he would have lost his temper and wouldn't have let it go. In the end, he was still shocked by what happened yesterday. He never knew that Li Yan's private state was so alluring.

Lu Cen pulled his arm and said with difficulty, "Look at what's at the foot of the bed?"

Jiang Zhao half-crawled over and saw several bloody footprints. A chill ran down his spine. They had only been there briefly yesterday, and he hadn't come down to check them then. He figured these footprints were left back then. After telling him, Jiang Zhao couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed onto the bed, wrapped in a blanket.

Lu Cen picked up the slippers and washed them in the bathroom. After putting them on, he went to the bedroom to mop the floor. The mop dripped water, forming a water trail. He had mopped the floor before, and there were only a few footprints. He mopped for a long time but couldn't clean them properly. Instead, he diluted the bloody footprints, making the whole area of ​​the bedroom bloody.

He was panting heavily, disturbing Jiang Zhao's sleep. He sat up halfway and stared blankly at the foot of the bed. "If you didn't know better, you'd think you were cleaning up a crime scene."

He resigned himself to his fate, got out of bed, took the mop, went to the bathroom to wash it, finished mopping in a few minutes, and then hung the mop up to dry.

"Don't make a sound."

Lu Cen nodded, indicating that he understood.

After going downstairs to eat breakfast alone, he checked his phone and found that Yang Jiali had accepted his friend request and asked him what he wanted.

Lu Cen hesitated for a moment, then replied that it was nothing.

Jiang Zhao was sleeping at home. During the day, Lu Cen planned to check the information of these people. It would be too passive to set off again. He knew very little about Li Yan's identity, let alone the others. Moreover, he had no idea why these people were so hostile to him and yet still invited him to go together.

During the National Day holiday, the school was closed, and he couldn't go to the school since no one was there.

Lu Cen thought for a while and first looked up the famous scenic spot online. It was said that the scenic spot was on the edge of the desert, with many tourists and overcrowded during holidays. Music festivals and concerts were often held there. From the high place, you could take pictures of the sunset with its glowing sky and the bright and dazzling sunrise. It was a place that many photographers longed for. The desolate and lonely scene could definitely be used to take beautiful photos.

Even without sunrise or sunset, the scenery alone is worth a visit for many people.

That's why this place is so popular.

There was so much discussion about this place online that Lu Cen stumbled upon a post on a forum.

[Shocking! A group of nine people have mysteriously disappeared at Crescent Moon.]

Lu Cen paused for a moment, then clicked on it.

First floor: I think I also saw this report online, but I don't know if it's true.

Lu Cen didn't scroll down, but instead switched to a web search for the incident. The webpage loaded, and soon a report appeared on the screen, saying that a group of young people went to a high place to take some photos, but they didn't come back. Because there was a big sandstorm on the edge of the desert that afternoon, the tourists had already been evacuated. They went in the morning, and there was no news until the next day, which alarmed the police, who searched for many days without finding a trace.

The group went missing and had no acquaintances. If it weren't for a live streamer capturing their image, probably no one would have known.

The camera in the live stream was a bit shaky and the camera was a bit far away.

Lu Cen felt inexplicably familiar with the screen. He zoomed in and his eyes narrowed when he saw the contents. The men and women in the screen were none other than the nine of them.

Behind me was a sky full of yellow sand, and my clothes were billowing in the wind.

Lu Cen was shocked. How could this be!

They've disappeared, so who are they now?!

Lu Cen checked the time and realized it was May 3rd, five months ago.

Five months ago, they went to Crescent Moon and disappeared there. Disappearance means their fate is unknown, but they are still standing here safely, not one of them missing.

This is too bizarre.

There are differing opinions on the forum, with some saying that if someone is missing and hasn't been seen, how do you know they're just missing and not already home?

It's just a photo, what can it prove?

It's just a rumor.

Lu Cen's mind was in complete turmoil. She had hoped to find some clues, but things were getting more and more complicated.

The sofa next to him sank in; Jiang Zhao, who had woken up at some point, was leaning lazily against it. "What are you looking at?"

Lu Cen turned off her phone. "It's nothing."

Jiang Zhao sized him up, raising an eyebrow; something was off about this guy.

After hesitating for a while, Lu Cen finally asked, "Where were you during the May Day holiday?"

"Are you still half asleep?" Jiang Zhao squinted at him. "Weren't we together during the May Day holiday?"

Lu Cen hadn't expected this development. "We're together?"

Jiang Zhao frowned, leaned closer to Lu Cen, pinched his cheek with his fingers, and asked suspiciously, "What's wrong with you these past two days? You seem strange."

Lu Cen's heart skipped a beat, but she remained calm on the surface. "What's strange about it?"

"That's all strange."

“It’s normal. You’d act strange if you were scared by a ghost for a few days.” Lu Cen added, “Besides, so much time has passed, how could I remember so much?”

"You're not scared out of your wits, are you?" Jiang Zhao ran his fingers through his hair and leaned closer.

The two were standing a little close, a distance that Lu Cen could accept. She looked up at him and said, "You haven't told me yet, we'll be there during the May Day holiday."

"In the desert, it could still be there."

Lu Cen was shocked. The internet said they were missing, but Jiang Zhao remembered that they went to the desert in May. Could it be that they didn't disappear, but came back safe and sound?

Lu Cen dared not ask any more questions, fearing that he would give himself away.

He sent Jiang Zhao to wash up, found their chat history, and scrolled back to when they first added each other. It was last September when freshmen started school. They were in the same class but different dormitories. The reason they added each other was because they joined the same club, and their relationship grew closer and closer.

Starting in November, Li Yan's attitude changed noticeably. Around that time, Li Yan probably realized that she had fallen for Jiang Zhao, as she frequently contacted him on WeChat, asking him to have meals or play ball together, saving him seats in the classroom, and doing other small things like that.

This kind of life lasted for several months.

Until the end of April, Jiang Zhao messaged him, saying that some of his friends had decided to go to the desert to film, and asked if he wanted to join them.

Li Yan asked him if he was going, and after receiving an affirmative answer, Li Yan said he would go.

There was no contact from that message until May 3rd. Then on the 4th, Li Yan kept messaging Jiang Zhao, asking where he was. The screen was filled with those three words, which looked shocking and had the atmosphere of a horror movie. Jiang Zhao didn't reply. It wasn't until the 7th that the two resumed their chat history. Judging from the content, they had returned to school and resumed their lives as ordinary students.

It's impossible to tell from the information available that Li Yan will confess to Jiang Zhao.

All I know is that starting in June, the two reduced the number of times they met and chatted, acting like ordinary classmates, polite but with limited contact.

Of the nine people, Jiang Zhao and Li Yan had the deepest connection. Moreover, among these nine people, he only had Hu Si and Jiang Zhao on WeChat, and Li Yan was not familiar with the others.

Lu Cen clicked into the chat window with Hu Si, only to discover that he had added Hu Si on WeChat much earlier than Jiang Zhao. According to the time, the two had known each other since Li Yan's second year of high school, when they were students at the same school and even deskmates.

"What are you looking at so intently?"

Lu Cen was so frightened that she almost dropped her phone, gripping it tightly with trepidation.

"No, it's nothing."

Jiang Zhao narrowed his eyes and glanced at his phone, but didn't investigate further.

"Going out for dinner tonight?"

It must be said that Jiang Zhao is also a very strong person. Even when faced with such a bizarre situation, he was still thinking about dinner.

Lu Cen had no objection.

Lately, his cravings for food have surpassed everything else.

The restaurant Jiang Zhao chose was a light mushroom hot pot restaurant, where every inch was infused with the fresh aroma of mushrooms. The two of them had eaten there many times before, but this was the first time Jiang Zhao had a different feeling.

The feeling was hard to describe, but it made him feel very at ease.

Under Lu Cen's influence, Jiang Zhao also ate quite a bit. In the end, the two of them had almost nothing left and went home just before dark.

Lu Cen felt this was not a solution at all, and discussed it with Jiang Zhao, "Should we tell them about this? So they can be on guard."

Jiang Zhao asked, "Do you think Hu Si will only contact you, or will he contact everyone?"

Lu Cen's intuition told him that the dead would only come looking for him, and although he couldn't explain why, that was the truth of his mind.

Jiang Zhao understood the meaning in his eyes and calmly said, "Telling them won't help; it will only increase panic."

"The two of us can't solve this."

What can humans do against ghosts?

There was nothing they could do but hide.

Jiang Zhao remained silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Let's wait a couple of days and see, then we'll talk about it."

Lu Cen didn't say anything. If things went as he expected, Jiang Zhao would forget everything he was going through as they embarked on a new journey tomorrow.

He wanted to take this opportunity to learn more.

On his way back, he bought some fruit. He took the bag to the kitchen, washed it, and then returned to the living room. He started a conversation, "When we went to take pictures at a high place, didn't we encounter a sandstorm?"

Jiang Zhao picked up a grape, peeled it with his fingers, and said, "What kind of sandstorm is that? It's just a bit of wind, it won't have any impact at all."

"What about the photos we took?"

"It's all blocked by yellow sand, what's there to film?"

"I see." Lu Cen asked casually, "Back then, a lot of people thought we were lost and disappeared, which caused quite a stir."

"People like to follow trends."

"I don't quite remember how we got back."

Jiang Zhao looked up at him, his expression indifferent. He reached for another grape and, while eating the fruit, said, "How else could you have come back on foot? I even carried you for quite a distance, have you forgotten?"

Lu Cen didn't forget; he simply had no memory of it at all. This lack of memory made it impossible for him to move an inch.

"My legs aren't broken, why would I let you carry me?"

"Hey, are you kicking me while I'm down?" Jiang Zhao glared at him, annoyed. "You were so dehydrated back then, your legs weren't broken, but you couldn't get up."